Stories abound this week about the first Bhutanese refugees leaving camps in Nepal and headed west and to New Zealand. We have written several stories about this large group over many months, but it looks like they are really on the way now.
KATHMANDU (AFP) – The first of more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees languishing in camps in southern Nepal for more than 15 years have begun to leave for overseas resettlement, officials said Monday.
A UN represenative said this about the first to leave:
“….some people will leave Monday and we would like to see between 40 to 60 people leave in the next two weeks, to Denmark, Canada, Norway, the United States and New Zealand.”
But, then went on to say the larger numbers will be leaving for the US at the end of the month. We committed to 60,000!
In October 2006, the United States offered to take some 60,000 of the 107,000 refugees who live in seven camps in southern Nepal, and around 23,000 refugees have since applied.